[Wavytone]

Now that a significant area of the Blue Mountains has been effectively cleared by fire - and all the wildlife in it - I'll raise a provocative issue.

The whole of Europe and Asia have been occupied by humanity for thousands of years and on the whole the vegetation is far from "natural" - humans have exercised conscious decisions over what vegetation is allowed to grow where for millennia and the landscapes you see now are the result of that process.

We cannot continue to cling to the past and expect areas like the blue mountains to remain as lush and green as it was in past years, full of eucalypts. Things change - and climate change is going to force major changes in the native flora and fauna whether we like it or not. We can sit by passively and watch as it is periodically burnt in hot years and grows back in wetter years, letting nature running its course, as the greenies would wish.

Or we can start to proactively make some decisions about what grows where, to deliberately reduce the risk of fire. It will take many decades, perhaps a century or two to complete this, but it can be done and is certainly not beyond us.

The fire hazard in this country stems to a significant extent from the inherent flammability of the vegetation, notably the eucalypts but also several other species that have a high level of volatile and flammable oils. One way to reduce the hazard would be to consider getting rid of these - particularly the eucalypts - and planting something else instead that does NOT pose the same risk and will grow in the same environment. There are many substitutes - oriental, european and american - although frowned on currently for not being "native".

Each time a large fire does us a huge favour by clearing the eucalypts we should be out there afterwards with a mass campaign of seeding the area with less flammable substitutes. I'm not suggesting clearing it for agriculture or tree plantations (erk) but instead aerial seeding of a mix of suitable species to create a different sort of forest that isn't so flammable, everything from ground covers to trees. Botanists know enough about the cycles of growth and regeneration now to do this, IMHO.

Oh, and before you ask "what about the wildlife", it is doomed sooner or later, either:

- adapt to the new vegetation,
- starve or move elsewhere,
- be wiped out by the next fire.

Conclusion:

A weed is the wrong plant in the wrong place. IMHO many eucalypts are weeds, very big ones. The time has come to do something about them.